Choices
by VolcanicPizza
Summary: In front of the Barrier, a thin trickle of blood leads to a fallen body. Beside it is a cell phone, which slowly begins to ring... Come, listen to what it has to say. (Two-shot)
1. Entrance

**A/N: This is my first Undertale fic, so please don't be too critical.**

A golden flower sat in front of the Barrier. It was an ordinary flower, and yet, there was something about it...

Should one look beneath it, they would see a trickle of a red liquid. The thin trail of blood led to the body lying in front of the pulsing gateway between the Underground and the human world. A dropped knife lay by the body's hand. Beside the pocket of the pants lay the cell phone which had fallen out.

The phone rung.

"heya. is anyone there...? well... just calling to say. you made a snowman really happy."

If the body heard, or even lived, it gave no indication, asides from a finger twitching.

"guess i should say something else, too."

Did the fingers of the left hand tighten into a fist, or was it just a trick of the light?

Twilight at the Barrier is strange.

"so.. it's been a while. since you left... things have gotten really strange. overnight, a bunch of people mysteriously disappeared. as well as the human souls."

Did the eyes flicker for a moment, or was it a shadow, helped by the blood trickling from beneath?

"people were heart-broken. everyone they looked up to... everything they were relying on, in one night, disappeared. everyone clamored to elect a new ruler as fast as possible. so, uh... by process of elimination... papyrus became the ruler?"

Did a whisper of breath escape, carrying the word, "Yes," or was it just the wind blowing through the Barrier?

"why doesn't he talk to you about this... "

And then a new voice cut through, louder.

"HELLO! HUMAN! IT'S STRANGE. ASGORE, ALPHYS, METTATON, AND UNDYNE WENT AWAY."

Did a voice whisper, "Fool," affectionately, or was it more wind?

"SANS SAYS THEY WENT ON VACATION. I HOPE THEY'RE HAVING FUN! OH YEAH. I'M THE RULER OF THE UNDERGROUND NOW! EVERYTHING IS IMPROVING A LOT HERE. PRODUCTIVITY IS UP! BECAUSE I TELL EVERYONE TO KEEP WORKING. AND, NO ONE GOES HUNGRY!"

A voice whispered, "Good." This was definitely a human voice, not wind, choked by blood though it was...

"BECAUSE I COOK EVERYONE SPAGHETTI. MEANWHILE, MY BROTHER HANDLES THE PAPERWORK. STRANGELY... HE SEEMS TO BE WORKING HARD? THIS SOUNDS MESSED UP... BUT... I'M PROUD... OF HIM? OH NO!"

"Heh." the voice chuckled.

"AS FOR OUR HUMAN POLICY... WE'VE DECIDED, UM. SANS, WHAT WAS IT?"

"we can't judge humans to be all good or all bad." replied the other voice.

"RIGHT! SO IT'S CASE-BY-CASE! IF THEY'RE EVIL... WE GIVE THEM PUZZLES! IF THEY'RE GOOD... WE ALSO GIVE THEM PUZZLES!"

"But that makes no difference, does it?"

"THAT SEEMS TO BE THE BEST WAY! ... ... IS SANS GONE? YOU KNOW... DON'T TELL MY BROTHER, BUT... DESPITE THE IMPROVEMENTS WE'VE MADE... SOMETIMES THIS JOB IS KIND OF HARD. SINCE THE KING WENT AWAY... LOTS OF PEOPLE JUST WANT TO GIVE UP. SOMETIMES, EVEN MY BEST ENCOURAGEMENT... DOESN'T WORK. AND, AND, I MISS UNDYNE, TOO. SHE NEVER ANSWERS MY PHONE CALLS... SHE MUST BE HAVING A LOT OF FUN ON VACATION. I JUST WISH SHE'D SEND A POSTCARD..."

"BUT HEY! I WON'T GIVE UP! I CAN'T GIVE UP! I HAVE TO MAKE EVERYONE GIVE UP GIVING UP! WE'LL GET OUT OF HERE, SLOWLY! THEN WE CAN ALL HANG OUT AGAIN! ANYWAYS, I THINK SANS WANTED TO TALK TO YOU, SO..."

And then the first voice was back again. "you know, i know what you did. everybody except papyrus does. and... i can't keep him innocent forever. eventually... he's got to know what you've done. everybody you've killed. if you want to make things right again..."

"i know what you are. what you can do. it's been obvious all these times. residual memories hanging over, the sense of déjà vu i have whenever i see you or talk to you... if you want to make things right, then you've got one last chance."

 _Click..._

"What option do I have?"

 _Nobody needs to die._

 _I've played with the timelines just because I could. I was curious what would happen... just like Asriel. But now... maybe it's time to stop playing with the timelines... and give everybody a happy ending._

He stood, leaving the phone and knife on the ground. Blood coated him, but he ignored that.

There were two options.

Yet, really, there was only one.

The light grew brighter, and then everything went black.


	2. Exit

**A/N: Originally I was planning this to be a one-shot, but apparently y'all like it! Yippee skip for me, I guess, so I'm expanding it into a two-shot. That's it, because I've got another full-length Undertale fic to finish, and don't give me Bambi eyes.**

 **I said don't.**

He should have been happy.

There should have been joy.

It only took a few resets, and nobody was dead. Everyone was saved.

Except Asriel...

But even that was an impossibility, wasn't it?

"But I've proven nothing to be impossible..." he whispered to himself in the darkness of his room. Small comfort.

"And that," he continued, "is the worst part of it. No matter how good of an ending I have, I'll never be satisfied. I'll always wonder, 'But what would happen if I'd killed X, spared Y, and never tried to be friends with Z?' Or, worse yet, what if I try to save Asriel, and can do so, but at the cost of everything else?"

That was the fiend that hid within the infinite possibilities that could still exist in the multiple timelines. Never would he be satisfied with what he had gained. Always he would be looking for another way, more possibilities, all on the foundation of a single, harmless-seeming question?

 _What if?_

And then, an idea, one he'd never thought of, came to him.

"But there is another way," he whispered, and a grotesque grin distorted his face. "I wonder what will happen if I kill everyone? Not just a few, like I have before, but _every single person, so there is nothing left_? Not a single person would be left alive.

"Not one of them."

He heard his door slowly open. Breathing came in the darkness.

He heard Toriel place the plate next to his bed.

He heard footsteps as she turned and left the room.

He heard the gentle closing of the door.

And then he turned over in his bed, knowing that something had happened to his face, twisting it uncontrollably into an expression that was not his, and belonged to another person entirely.

And he did not care.

Somewhere in the darkness, there was laughter.


End file.
